Ivan Maslennikov

Ivan Ivanovich Maslennikov (16 September 1900-16 April 1954) was a General of the Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. He led the 3rd Baltic Front during the offensive against Nazi Germany in the Baltics in 1944.

Biography
Maslennikov was born on 16 September 1900 in Chalykla, Saratov Oblast, Russian Empire, and he joined the Red Army in Astrakhan in 1917 during the Russian Civil War. In 1921, he became a cavalry brigade commander, and he was later sent to the NKVD border troops in Central Asia as a regimental commander. In 1935, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and became a colonel, and he became the NKVD's Deputy Commissar for the Troops. In 1939, his border troops took part in the invasion of Poland, and he helped in planning the occupation of the Baltics in 1940. In July 1941, he took command of the Soviet 29th Army at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and he would command various armies during the counterattacks against the Axis Powers. In December 1943, he became the commander of the Soviet 42nd Army, which would take part in the fighting around Leningrad before Maslennikov was given command of the 3rd Baltic Front for the 1944 Baltic Offensive. By October 1944, his forces had liberated the Baltics, and his front was disbanded after the the capture of Riga led to the front becoming a prolix formation. After the war, he joined Lavrentiy Beria's CPSU faction, and he killed himself in Moscow in 1954 out of fear of being executed by Nikita Khrushchev's anti-Stalinist and anti-NKVD regime.